A panel of U.K. lawmakers is calling for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for shale gas even as companies are applying for permits to start exploration work in the fledgling sector. The recommendation from the U.K. parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee in a report published Monday comes as parliament prepares to vote on the Infrastructure Bill , which contains a measure that would allow companies to drill and frack at depth without the landowners’ permission. Committee member Caroline Spelman, a Conservative and former Environment Secretary in the coalition government until 2012, last week also proposed an amendment to the bill imposing a moratorium on fracking, in which water, sand and chemicals are used to free oil and natural gas from shale formations, because it could risk the U.K.’s […]